Across the United States, there are a relatively large number of broadcast television (TV) stations that generate TV programming. These broadcast TV stations generate revenue by selling advertising spots. A commercial is aired in the spots or commercial breaks during TV programs. A buyer of spots (e.g., a manufacturer or its broker) contacts one of these TV stations to purchase spots for its commercial or creative promotion. The TV station informs the buyer of its available inventory of the spots. In purchasing spots from a single TV station, there are a relatively high quantity of variables to analyze, such as the time of day when the commercial will air, the specific TV program during which the commercial will air, the demographics of the TV households associated with the TV program, the advertising cost and many other variables. Therefore, the purchasing process can be lengthy, complex and burdensome even for a single TV station.
Furthermore, the buyer may wish to air the same advertising campaign across an entire territory, such as the United States, as part of a national advertising project. This adds to the labor, complexity and burden of the purchasing process. In an attempt to procure spots for a national advertising project, the buyer must undergo the same burdensome purchasing process for all of the TV stations distributed throughout the United States.
This burden is compounded when the targeted TV stations include independent TV stations, such as local, independent or partially-independent TV stations. Each independent TV station, known in the industry as an unwired station, produces some or all of its TV programs independent from the other TV stations. For example, a local TV station may be affiliated with a TV network. In this case, the local TV station can produce some of its own TV programs and receive other TV programs from its affiliated TV network. In another example, a local TV station can be entirely unaffiliated with any TV network, in which case the local TV station can produce all of its own TV programs on a stand-alone basis.
Each independent TV station, whether a local TV station or other independent TV station, has an inventory of advertising spots that is isolated from the other TV stations targeted by the purchaser. This requires a separate spot analysis process for each of the separate inventories. Therefore, the purchasing labor can be multiplied by as much as ten times, fifty times or more depending upon the quantity of independent TV stations involved. Also, it can be difficult to evaluate the buyer's progress toward satisfying the buyer's national goals for the creative promotion. This is because each independent TV station has its own inventory data set, isolated and independent of the other stations. Therefore, this independent programming of TV stations can exacerbate the purchasing problems described above. For example, the isolated spot inventories of local TV stations can make it significantly more difficult to procure suitable spots for a territory-wide project that satisfies the advertising goals of the purchaser.
The foregoing background describes some, but not necessarily all, of the problems, disadvantages, challenges and shortcomings related to purchasing advertising spots.